How do I set up an account with Checkmyfile? A guide for borrowers in the UK

If you’re applying for a mortgage in the UK and you’re a customer of ours, we’ve probably asked you to set up an account with Checkmyfile. This is the platform through which you will find out your current credit score, which is one of the most important indicators of your financial health. In order to make the whole process easier for you, we decided to prepare this article, in which we go step by step through the procedure of registering and generating your report.

Step 1: Registration

You have to start the whole process of checking your credit score by creating an account on checkmyfile. Registration will take you no more than 10 minutes and follows a logical process. Take into account that although you will be asked to add your payment card number, you will not be charged a fee at the time of registration - it will only be charged after the 7-day trial period.

While it sometimes pays to use checkmyfile for a longer period of time, the report you generate when you register seems crucial, as it will enable you to catch any misinformation and make an overall assessment of your current credit score. Unless you’re in a very bad financial situation that would take months to straighten out, it’s enough to write down on a piece of paper the steps you’ll want to take to raise your ratings by a few dozen points or more.

Step 2: Generate and download a credit report

When you log into your account after registration, your credit report will already be ready. To obtain it, simply click “Download Printable Report”. It may take a while to download, but within moments you should already be enjoying the full package of data you are interested in. Please note, however, that your downloaded report will not automatically refresh - you will have to download the file again to receive new information about yourself. Changes occur once a month, so de facto, one report is free.

Step 3: Reading information from the report

This is almost done. Once you have downloaded the file, open it in a PDF reader. You will see an approximately 25-page report, on the first page of which you will find the absolutely most important piece of information - your credit score. We will deal with the analysis of the individual symbols in the report and the explanation of possible errors in the next article. Let us now turn to the issues that are worth discussing right at the outset.

How do I protect myself from Checkmyfile charges?

While £14.99 a month is an amount most of us can accept, we understand that some people don’t want to spend money on this service. After all, especially just before a move, we try to make every penny count to raise as much money as possible for the costs that accompany buying a house or flat in the UK.

Fortunately, disabling your subscription is very easy. To do this, first log into your account by clicking on the Log In button. Next, you should go to your account settings. Once you have done this, go to “I would like to manage my subscription” and click on “I’d like to stop my subscription”. Alternatively, you can also contact Checkmyfile via the helpline or by email. When you do this, you will not be charged at all, so you will save some money.

When should I check my creditworthiness on Checkmyfile?

A credit check and credit score should be the first of 7 steps to buying a property in the UK. For this reason, we suggest you generate your report as soon as possible. The mortgage application process can take around a month, so as long as your financial health is good enough, you’ll use checkmyfile’s services mainly to give you mental comfort and know exactly where you stand.

However, if you find out that your situation is not good enough to get financing without problems, it is still worth generating a report as soon as possible, preferably even before you first contact us. This will give you time to take the first steps to financial freedom - you’ll be able to pay off some loans, close a credit card, for example, or make sure that all payment statuses are correct and your report doesn’t show arrears that never really existed.

If you already want to take care of your credit score, we cordially invite you to read our comprehensive article in which we explain step by step how to raise this indicator in a short period of time.